


Game On: Miraculous One Shot #1

by QweenBeen



Series: Heads and Hearts: Tales of the Miraculous Ladybug & Chat Noir [2]
Category: Adrien Agreste - Fandom, Chat Noir - Fandom, Marinette Dupain-Cheng - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Confusion, F/M, Female Protagonist, Heartache, Hugs, Jealousy, Romance, Teen Angst, Teen Romance, Unrequited Love, love square
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 10:45:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9652406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QweenBeen/pseuds/QweenBeen
Summary: Here is my first One Shot for my Heads and Hearts series! You should probably read "The Fangirl" before you read this one or it'll make no sense. ^_^http://archiveofourown.org/works/9205061/chapters/20882441Also, I kind of made some tweaks to the sugary sweet language they use on the show. I know when I was fifteen/sixteen, I cursed pretty liberally, so I took a few liberties with this one. Otherwise, I hope I stuck true to their characters!This One Shot takes place only a day after the The Fangirl. I promise, it's building up to Episode 2!The next One Shot will take place a few months ahead because I do have to age these kiddos up!Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoy!





	

"So what exactly are you wigging out about this time, girl?"

Marinette lay face planted on her chaise, arms and legs splayed ever so ungracefully among her mountain of pillows. Alya sat on the other end of the video call and Marinette could practically hear her roll her eyes.

“Because it's gonna be _bad_ ,” Marinette muttered stubbornly into her pillows.

“What?”

Marinette lifted up her head, eyes still closed, and pointed her face where she figured her phone was. “Bad, Alya. Oh so bad.” Her face plopped back down into her pillows with a _woomph_ and she groaned one more time for good measure.

“Adrien has been holed up in his house all morning and you're the only one he's willing to see today! Do you know how _amazing_ that is? He won't even talk to Nino! And you're _upset_? What the heck is wrong with you?”

“I don't knoooow, Alya,” Marinette whined, channeling every ounce of miserable, pathetic lovesick angst she could muster. She may be overdoing it, but she just _had_ to get out of going to this thing today!

She knew exactly what the hell was wrong but it wasn't something she could divulge, even to her best friend. It was true, after last night, Adrien had shut out all of his friends. He hadn't even confessed to Nino about his encounters with Ladybug yesterday, or otherwise Alya would have heard about it.

Now he was in hiding and had turned down everyone's request to hang out this weekend. Except of course, his plans still stood with Marinette (and Lila, blegh).

Marinette was now the only lucky bug who, not only had the inside scoop to why Adrien had holed himself up, but would be the first to see the effects of her alter ego's stupid pragmatic handiwork.

Tikki had done her best to reassure her that Ladybug had made the right choice. Just like no superhero should ever reveal their identity, no superhero should just start dating a guy and hope the bad guy wouldn't find out.

She'd tossed and turned all night anyway, her guilt rising like a tide every time she was about to fall asleep. In the darkness of her room, she'd see Adrien's crestfallen expression. Telling him there was no chance had been the sensible thing to do and it all totally sucked.

The way she saw it, her day could go two ways.

Go and suffer Adrien's melancholy, which was some kind of cosmic revenge for breaking his heart, she was sure of it. She'd also face Lila's jealous wrath, because that girl was off her rocker. And of course, Marinette would trip, stammer, drool and make a general fool of herself because _she_ was off her rocker.

Or she could just not go and lay here with her mountain of pillows until she had to drag herself to school on Monday.

The choice seemed easy enough. “I'm not going,” she mumbled.

“Oh yes you are!” Alya declared stubbornly. “Don't make me come over there and drag you out!”

Marinette rolled onto her back to stare hopelessly at her ceiling. “Why, Alya? He really shouldn't have invited me in the first place. Why can't I just bail out?”

“Because. I was totally wrong about that bitch, Lila, and you need to make sure she doesn't win and steal Adrien away from you!”

Alya sounded like a petulant child and Marinette twisted around to looked her in the digital eye. “Are you serious? You just want me to go because you hate Lila?” It was a new vindictive side to her best friend she'd never seen before but at least it was on her behalf.

“Girl, don't put words in my mouth! If you win, you win. Yay for everyone. It'd just be a slammin' bonus if Lila lost, you know?”

“Ugh, Alya! Lose, win, I don't care! This isn't a game, it's Adrien!”

“Girl, this is _life_! Life has winners and losers and trust me, you want to be a winner.”

“Alya, when it comes to Adrien, you know I'm always a loser.” _That_ should've been painfully obvious by now and didn't seem likely to change anytime soon.

“Every day's a new day, girl! Think positive!”

“Sure, okay. This is _positively_ not going to be good, Alya. I don't really need more opportunities to act like a dopeasaurus.”

“How about _start_ with stopping the dorky dinosaur names?” Alya offered unhelpfully.

“Yeah, yeah. So what's the real reason I'm going? To make Lila jealous? That seems pretty petty.”

“That's just it though. You're _not_ going just to make her jealous. You're going because Adrien asked you. You can go with a clean conscience! Figure out what the heck is wrong with him, cheer him up, and steal him away as a bonus! Easy peasy.”

“Bleh.” Marinette sat up on her chaise and rubbed her eyes irritably. She would never think of a good reason she couldn't go that would pacify Alya. Her brain was fuzzy and confused enough as it was to keep her excuses straight anyway. “Fine, Alya. I'll go but I'm going to lay low.”

Alya shrugged on her end of the line. “Whatevs. When Adrien asks you out on a date, you go, girl!”

“It's not a date!” Marinette hollered, but she heard the signature beep of Alya promptly disconnecting their call.

“It's okay, Marinette,” Tikki reassured her as she floated over. “Alya is right, this will be good for him. You can help him get his mind off everything that happened yesterday. He'll be in great company!” she said cheerfully.

“With Lila? Probably....” Marinette's mood was turning more and more sour by the second that it was a good possibility.

“No silly! With you! You shouldn't be so nervous. You almost kissed him, remember!?”

“I did?” Marinette's eyes widened. “I _did_.” She'd been so caught up in the Ladybug fallout, she'd almost forgotten the first part of the night. The dreamy way he'd looked at Ladybug with boundless adoration. “But he thought he was going to kiss Ladybug,” Marinette reminded Tikki glumly.

“That's not the point, Marinette,” Tikki continued sagely. “There is only one you, and only one him. If you almost kissed him once, you can kiss him again.” She beamed at her and floated to her shoulder. “It may not be as ' _easy peasy_ ' as Ladybug had it, but there's nothing you can't do.”

Tikki flitted up and nuzzled up against Marinette's cheek. “You sound as crazy as Alya, Tikki,” Marinette said lightly, letting a small smile quirk her lips. It was her first smile of the day and it lightened her mood up, _just_ a little.

“Just trust me, Marinette. You'll see.”

* * *

Marinette was eating lunch in the kitchen, wondering if she should walk or ride over to the community center holding the qualifier, when the doorbell rang.

With her mouth crammed full of sandwich and her eyes glued to her latest fashion magazine, she heard her mom open the door behind her.

“Hi, Mrs. Cheng.”

Marinette's heart dropped. A distinctly mousy squeak escaped her as she ducked beneath the dining table, knowing Adrien's voice immediately. The gob of sandwich in her cheek was momentarily forgotten as she peered up at him from her hiding place. He shouldn't be here! What was he doing here? What was _she_ doing down here?

“Adrien! How nice to see you again,” her mom said happily. “What brings you here?”

“I'm here to pickup Marinette. We made plans last night,” he said easily, as if picking her up and making plans with her was the most normal thing in the world.

“Oh of course. Mari-.” Sabine turned around to face her daughter and found an empty chair. “Marinette?”

Marinette watched in horror as her mother and Adrien both bent themselves at the waist to peer at her from under the table.

“Hoy!”

 _Crap!_ Marinette chewed like her life depended on it, swallowing the gob in one painful lump and leaping up from beneath her hiding place. “Hi! I was just um-i dropped a-erm-pickle!” She laughed painfully hard and did an _aw shucks_ move that she hoped was convincing. “You know those pesky pickles, always falling! Ha ha!”

Her face split in one of her hasty grins which she hoped looked less pained than it felt. The perplexed grimace on her mom's face said otherwise. Marinette wanted to just crawl back under the table as she watched Adrien bite back a broad smile. What was wrong with her? It hadn't even been thirty seconds and she was messing everything up!

Win him over! Alya and Tikki must be crazy!

“Did you get it?” he asked curiously, biting his lip to keep a straight face.

Marinette's face went stony blank. “Get wha?”

“The pickle.”

“Oh! Haha, um--yeah! Mmmm!” She rubbed her stomach in a circular motion, pretending to chew the last bits.

Her mother crossed her arms and frowned. “Marinette! We do not eat pickles off the floor!” Marinette jaw stopped fake chewing and she stared at her mom in abject horror. This was going from bad to worse! Now she was being scolded for eating food off the floor.

They had to get out of here, pronto.

“Sorry, mom, force of habit!” She snatched her little purse with Tikki tucked inside and raced for the door, kissing her mom on the way out. “Loveyoubyeeee!” she cried far too enthusiastically.

“Have fun, Marinette! Mind those pickles!” _Ugh_ , her mom was totally onto her, and even sent a quick wink before closing the door.

“Sorry, I didn't mean to cut into your lunch,” Adrien apologized as they worked their way down the stairs.

“Oh no, it's no problem!” Marinette flicked her wrist so hard it snapped against the door frame as they walked out. “Ouch!” She shook it frantically and sucked on her ring finger quickly.

“You okay?” He still had on that smile and she was pretty sure he was being highly amused by her lame clumsiness. She couldn't really blame him though. She was being totally ridiculous.

“Yep!” She stopped short at the sight of the beautiful silver car she'd seen a million times before. She'd always wondered how luxurious it must be on the inside, with maybe a TV screen or two, a little fridge, even a video game console.

Adrien stepped ahead of her and, like a perfect gentleman, held the door open. Marinette blushed and ducked inside, muttering her thanks.

“Sure.” As Adrien walked around the car, Marinette looked around quickly and was mildly disappointed. It was just a normal car. It smelled good, like freshly conditioned leather, and was perfectly immaculate, but otherwise normal.

“Thanks for picking me up,” she ventured shyly as he sat down and the car rolled away gently.

“Yeah sure, of course. I asked you, right? I wouldn't expect you to make your own way over there.”

“Well, that was...nice of you.” She managed a small smile that he returned before turning his attention to his window. As she turned to look out her own window, she glanced at him askance every once in a while to see if she should spark any kind of conversation.

As the minutes ticked by, his expression grew more and more morose, like his mask of happiness was slipping since he wasn't using it. He had his jaw cupped in hand and his eyes were dull, not looking at anything they were seeing.

Marinette's throat went dry as she saw first hand how much she had hurt him. She'd dreaded this meeting, imagining his misery, but it was ten times worse actually seeing him like this.

But what could she actually do now? What other line of questioning or distractions did she have that he'd want to talk about?

“You didn't happen to talk to Lila, did you?” Ugh, okay bad choice of questions. _She_ didn't even want to talk about Lila.

“Naw, she lives really close to there so I figured we'd meet her.” Adrien turned to face her. “You really think she's going to be upset, huh?”

Marinette chewed her lip and looked away. Was he really that clueless about how girls felt about him? Or how jealous they could get? They all wanted a slice of Adrien pie and he didn't even realize he was on the menu!

“Yeah, pretty sure.”

“But...we're just going as friends. Why would she be upset?”

Marinette rolled her eyes and shook her head. So he really could be that clueless.

“Because I'm a girl, Adrien.” She smiled thinly at him and shrugged. It was a stupid answer but it was a stupid simple thing. “That's all it needs to be.”

His eyebrows furrowed and the poor boy looked genuinely confused. Marinette could only shrug. She couldn't explain her own crazy behavior around him, let alone others. “Trust me. She asked you because she wanted _you_ to go with her. Not so that you could bring a tag along.”

“But you play so well. Isn't that a good reason?”

Marinette blushed and turned back towards the window to hide her rising flush. “Don't think so. Don't worry, I'll see if she's upset pretty quickly.”

Adrien humphed and looked back out the window. At least he seemed to be thinking about something other than Ladybug at that particular moment. One point for Marinette.

Marinette could really care less if Lila got upset at the sight of her. Lila she could handle. But she didn't want Adrien to feel like he'd caused unwanted drama. He had enough going on at the moment. If she needed to, she'd make like a tree and sneak away.

They pulled up in front of the community center and joined the large crowd of kids streaming in through the doors, the sounds of death defying battle greeting them on the way in.

The main room was bordered by five huge screens, each with two players already seated and battling for glory.

“Wow, look at all these people,” Adrien observed by her shoulder as they stepped in.

“Yeah, it's...great.” She looked over at him and raised her eyebrows. “You know, I don't think I'm actually going to play today.”

“What?” Adrien's eyes widened in surprise. “You _have_ to play!”

Marinette just shrugged and cast her eyes around the room. “I'm not playing in the tournament this year. If I do it because I have to, it's less fun, you know?”

“But you're so good! Wouldn't you want to win?”

“I think I'll let someone else have the glory this year,” she blushed.

Adrien sighed and shook his head. “You could at least show off your sick skills,” he muttered as they made their rounds of the battling duos, scoping out which one would be more entertaining to watch.

“Yeah, that's not really my style.”

“Adrien?” Lila's voice, while not loud, cut sharply across the game room, and both of them looked up as she entered.

Marinette braced herself as Lila gracefully swayed her way over to them, eyes locked on Adrien. She still hadn't seen Marinette, but she knew what would happen as soon as she did.

Marinette edged away from him with a couple of mini side steps when she saw Lila's expression finally darken.

“Marinette?” Her gaze passed suspiciously between them. “What are you doing here?”

She kept her tone light and cheery, but jealousy was never an easy thing to hide. She hid her sourness so much better than Chloe, but Marinette could read it from a mile away. Adrien was a whole different story.

Adrien opened his mouth to respond, but Marinette quickly intervened, nearly shouting. “Wejustbumpedintoeachother.”

Lila narrowed her eyes, riddling out what she'd just said, and Adrien's jaw audibly clicked shut. “You...what? Just bumped into each other?” Lila repeated slowly?

“Yep! I just love this game _so_ much that I just _had_ to be here, and look who I bump into!” She grinned widely, presenting Adrien next to her like a game show host.

Lila frowned and watched Marinette's blank expression for a few long seconds. believed her seemed beyond the point though.

“Well, whatever,” she said with a shrug as she turned her full attention back to Adrien. If Marinette wasn't laying claim to him, which she very much wasn't, Lila didn't seem to care.

Her arm slipped inside his and Marinette felt an inadvertent grimace and nose crinkle pass across her face before she could stop it. “Thanks for coming, Adrien. I kind of wanted to make things up to you from the other day.”

“You have nothing to make up for, Lila,” Adrien assured her, looking helplessly at Marinette for an escape route.

Marinette quickly reconfigured her features and whistled at the ceiling. “Um, it's totally cool,” he finished lamely as he tried to graciously slide his arm away from her.

Lila beamed at him and perched herself up on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek.

Marinette pivoted on her heels before her red face and angry scowl revealed themselves. She was not going to get involved, she was _not_ going to cause a scene and embarrass him.…

“I--gotta go. See ya!” she called over her shoulder.

She had only made it a few steps, practically hearing Lila drool over her new prize, when Adrien abruptly stopped her in her tracks.

“Marinette, wait!” She turned to look at him over her shoulder and saw Lisa's frown deepen. “You don't have to go. Look, Lila, I invited Marinette today. I didn't really think it'd be a big deal.”

“Why?” Lila pouted up at him and actually sounded hurt. This girl was so confusing, Marinette couldn't tell which feelings were genuine or false.

“I just figured we're all here as friends, you know? And Marinette's pretty good at the game.”

Lila narrowed her gaze at Marinette for a split second and shrugged. “Whatever. You're cool, right Marinette?”

Marinette's eyes widened, not sure how to respond. She hadn't ever been asked that. “Uh...sure? I think so?”

“She's cool,” Adrien said with a heartwarming smile. Marinette blushed and shrugged.

It was painfully awkward for the first ten minutes as they wove through the crowd. Lila seemed to have grown an Adrien on her hip and was showing him off like a prized trophy. Marinette followed behind, jealousy and pity rearing a it's alternating head as she watched them.

When would she ever be as brazen as Lila? Would she even _want_ to be? Adrien seemed painfully uncomfortable, but if he truly didn't like it, wouldn't he say something? Or was he just way too polite?

When he could escape her clutches, he'd lean over to Marinette and crack a lame joke, making them both smile. Marinette didn't let it slip her notice that it was the few times he smiled. Another point for her? Maybe?

Adrien and Marinette played off once, to the excited cheers of a few die hard fans. They just _had_ to watch the returning champion kick serious mech ass, and Marinette couldn't say no.

She was glad she had. It was the only time that she sorta kinda forgot their present weird situation and could enjoy Adrien's company.

It was also the only time Lila was left stranded and she quickly rose to the occasion to win back his attention.

“My turn!” she called out, plopping down on a bench and snatching a controller from a freshly defeated player. She looked up at Adrien standing behind her. “Wish me luck?”

Adrien smiled weakly down at her, but it quickly faded when she turned back to the screen. Marinette watched as his face slowly transformed again. His eyes became more distant, lost in faraway thoughts.

It seemed so easy for him to fall back into his rut, but Marinette took a deep breathe and resolved to at least try to help this time.

Standing hidden behind Lila, Marinette reached over and squeezed his fingertips, leaning towards him ever so slightly. “You okay?” she whispered.

He blinked hard coming out of his daze, and looked down at their joined hands. Marinette quickly released his fingers and blushed fiercely. Adrian cast a quick glance at Lila's progress and when he had determined it was safe, grabbed Marinette by the elbow and guided her away.

He bent down towards her, and Marinette's heart thundered in her ears as his voice lowered for her ears only. “Marinette, I--I want to thank you for coming with me today. It's been. …”

He trailed off as he searched for the right words and Marinette found herself gazing hard into his green eyes again. He sighed and closed his eyes for a brief moment.

“I had a pretty shitty night and my day wasn't looking like it'd get much better,” he finally admitted. “But the only reason I didn't cancel on Lila was cuz I kinda wanted to chill with you.”

Marinette's eyes widened into massive disks. What was he saying right now! What was going _on_? She opened her mouth to say something, but promptly clicked it shut as he continued.

“I didn't think I'd smile at all today either.” A little smirk twisted his lips, and Marinette found it inexplicably sad. “So thank you for that too.”

“I--I erm--uh.” Marinette's mouth moved and made sounds of its own volition as her brain violently went on the fritz. She hadn't ever imagined that her company was all he'd need....

He grinned then and took both of her hands in his, promptly shutting her up. “I'm so lucky you're my friend, Marinette.”

“Oh!” Marinette blinked hard. Once. Twice. He was... _lucky_....“Yeah, well I -uh- I'm here anytime you need a friend, Adrien.”

His eyes swam with tears, his emotions from the night before pouring through. Before she knew what was happening, Adrien wrapped his arms around her and hugged her hard. “You have no idea how much that means to me,” he whispered.

It took a long second for her stunned head to catchup to her arms, but they slowly rose to hug him back. He was thanking her. Thanking her for something as simple as being her friend. His intensity was the same now as it had been last night, and for entirely different reasons.

It felt so strange, to be standing before him as two sides of the same coin. Never landing on either face, she just kept spinning, spinning like a top, a different face always meeting the boy she loved.

They both blushed fiercely as they separated, Marinette quickly finding something supremely interesting on the floor.

They turned to quietly sneak behind Lila again, but froze in place when they saw her. She had completed her round and her blaring defeat resounded harshly on the screen behind her. She had already turned to face them.

Marinette was pretty sure if looks could kill, she'd be a goner.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading!


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